Inning

An inning is a division of a game in baseball and related bat-and-ball sports in which one team bats while the other team fields and tries to prevent runs.

In baseball, an inning has two halves. The top half is when the visiting team bats and the bottom half is when the home team bats. Each half-inning continues until the defense records three outs. After both halves are completed, the inning ends and the next one begins. The game typically starts with the top of the first inning.

Most professional games consist of nine innings. If the score is tied after nine innings, extra innings are played until one team leads after a completed inning. Some leagues use abbreviated formats or mercy rules that end games early under certain run-difference conditions.

During an inning, the offensive team scores runs by safely running around the bases; the defensive team aims to record outs to end the half-inning. Outs can be achieved by strikeouts, force outs, flyouts, and other plays defined by the rules. Pitching statistics, such as innings pitched, track how long a pitcher has worked and can accumulate over the course of the game and season.

The term inning appears in American English mainly in baseball contexts. In cricket, the corresponding term is innings (plural) and is used for each side’s turn to bat. Thus, while inning is common in baseball, innings is the standard term in cricket.